Recep Tayyip Erdoğan making the Rabia gesture to show solidarity with the Muslim Brotherhood(2013)
Turkey’s President Erdoğan is reported to be consolidating power:
July 24, 2016
Supporters of Turkey’s ruling and main opposition parties, usually bitter foes, were set to rally together on Sunday in support of democracy following a failed military coup as President Tayyip Erdogan tightens his grip on the country.
In another demonstration of unity after the coup, which was staged by a faction within the armed forces, the head of Turkey’s air force issued a rare statement stressing “absolute obedience” to the chief of the military General Staff. Some members of the air force were involved in the coup.
The chief of the military General Staff, Hulusi Akar, who was held hostage by the plotters on the night of July 15, condemned the plotters on Sunday as “cowards in uniform” who had greatly harmed the nation and the army.
Erdogan, who narrowly escaped capture and possible death during the attempted coup, has declared a state of emergency, allowing him to sign laws without prior parliamentary approval in a drive to root out supporters of the coup.
Critics of Erdogan fear he is using the abortive coup to wage an indiscriminate crackdown on dissent. Turkish authorities have suspended, detained or placed under investigation more than 60,000 soldiers, police, judges, teachers, civil servants and others in the past week. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-security-idUSKCN1040K7
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has wanted more power for years.
Protestant prophecy speculator Joel Richardson made some comments about Tayyip Erdoğan and the end times:
July 23, 2016
“Whether we are speaking of the role of the nations in last days biblical prophecy, or merely examining current Middle East geopolitics from a secular analysis, understanding what is presently unfolding in Turkey is absolutely critical,” Richardson told WND. “For the past 20 years, American foreign policy has looked to Turkey as the model for what we would like to replicate throughout the region. Turkey, it was thought, was a model of success of a moderate Muslim nation.”
Richardson said the current history of Turkey is a graphic illustration of the failure of President Barack Obama’s policies when it comes to battling extremism in the Muslim world.
“In fact, it was the Turkish model that was the inspiration behind President Obama’s dramatic shift in American foreign policy in the Middle East,” Richardson said. “Rather than dealing with various military strongmen and Middle-Eastern dictators who could maintain control over their people, the Obama administration began to seek the ouster of these various autocrats and looked to replace them with what they viewed as moderate Islamist government. The results of course have been beyond devastating.
“Undeniably, it can be said that Obama’s (and by extension Hillary Clinton’s) designs for the Middle East have produced the absolute chaos that we are now seeing throughout the world. Not only has it led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, but also the global refugee crisis, and worst of all, the increasing radicalization of large swaths of the Sunni world. Further demonstrating the folly of the Obama model, it has been during the past eight years of his administration that even Turkey itself has emerged as one of the most potentially dangerous Islamist nations in the world.” …
“While no one can say for sure, my assessment is that while the coup attempt was legitimate, the ruling AKP party had foreknowledge of what was about to unfold and used it to their advantage,” said Richardson. “Within hours of the coup attempt, the AKP had already removed nearly 3,000 judges. Obviously, the lists were ready long before the coup attempt. Over the past couple of days, there have been over 10,000 various government or military officials either fired or arrested. Many have been noting the similarities of between the failed Turkish coup with the infamous Reichstag fire, which Adolph Hitler used as an excuse to purge his government of any potential dissenters. The comparison seems entirely fair.”
Richardson condemned reports which portrayed the defeat of the coup as a triumph for “democracy.” He observed AKP supporters did not chant slogans in support of freedom or liberty, but instead called “Allahu Akbar!”
“It is important to note that just ten years ago, shouts of the Arabic phrase ‘Allahu Akbar’ in Turkey, even among more Islamist Turks, would be extremely rare,” said Richardson. “Turks pride themselves in being above the barbaric and uncultured Arabs. No more. The popularity of overtly Islamist sentiment should be deeply troubling to the whole world.”
Richardson argues believers should be deeply concerned over these developments because there is an important prophetic significance to the rise of Islamist sentiment in what was once the Eastern Roman Empire.
“What is also fascinating to note is that within Islamic apocalyptic, there is a prophecy that says that Constantinople, (now called Istanbul) would be conquered by the Mahdi, not through military action, but simply through shouts of, ‘Takbir’ (Allahu Akbar),” Richardson told WND. “Surely for the increasingly apocalyptically minded Muslim world, this prophecy may be seen as having been fulfilled in our midst. Kemalism has finally breathed its last gasp. Turkey has fallen to the Islamists. Erdogan is one step closer to his goal of becoming the Caliph of the Muslim world.” http://www.wnd.com/2016/07/failed-coup-in-turkey-an-end-times-marker/#IAmhzCfvU0k33xkD.99
While Joel Richardson may well be correct that Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğanwants to be the Caliph of the Muslim world, Erdoğan will not end up being the biblically prophesied King of the South (Daniel 11:40-43).
However, I will add that the first time my wife and I were in Turkey in 1990, a Turkish guide we had made it clear that Turkey felt that it should lead the Middle East again and that the world would be a better place if it did. Thus, it appears that various ones in Turkey have long wanted to again dominate the Islamic world (like Turkey did prior to WWI).
Since in the past, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has indicated solidarity with the Muslim Brotherhood, let’s look at what that group wants to accomplish:
Al-Banna was chiefly responsible for formulating the policies of this association…the idea of universal muslim state was constantly implied due to the association’s focus on Islam. While strongly disapproving of local brands of Nationalism, particularly if they were Western-inspired and secularly-minded, Banna developed his vision of Pan-Islamic Nationalism, insisting that Islam and Nationalism were complementary, especially when the latter operated within the parameter of the Islamic truth, since, for the Muslim Brethren, Islam was of course both religion and state. Here we need to analyze what was the basic concept from which Hassan al-Banna initiated to establish such Islamic organization. Then we would also explore his thought of the causes of descend of Islamic society particularly in Egypt. However, his effort and works deserved great consideration of Islamic society in the revolution to the revival of Islamic state (Caliphate)…The Muslim Brethren…believe that the caliphate is a symbol of Islamic Union and an indication of the bonds between the nations of Islam. They see the caliphate and its re-establishment as a top priority, subsequently; an association of Muslims people should be set up, which would elect the imam”. (zhyntativ. HASAN AL-BANNA AND HIS POLITICAL THOUGHT OF ISLAMIC BROTHERHOOD. IkhwanWeb, May 13, 2008. http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=17065 viewed 09/22/11)
What is the Muslim Brotherhood?
The world’s largest and most influential Islamist movement. Founded in Egypt in 1928, the group was originally focused on ridding the country of corrupting secular influences brought by British colonial rule. Over the years, it established branches and affiliates in many countries to promote traditional Sunni Islamic morals, social justice, and the eradication of poverty and corruption. “The Islamic nation,” its charter states, “must be fully prepared to fight the tyrants and the enemies of Allah as a prelude to establishing an Islamic state”—ideally a re-established caliphate, stretching from Spain across the Middle East and Central Asia to Indonesia, to be governed according to Islamic sharia law. (Understanding the Muslim Brotherhood. February 14, 2011. © The Muslim Brotherhood. http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=28019 viewed 11/21/2011)
The Muslim Brotherhood has been called the world’s oldest and largest Islamic political group and has been called the “world’s most influential Islamist movement” (http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/2010/11/2010111681527837704.html)–it wants an Islamic caliphate (though some new group with similar goals could also form). The Muslim Brotherhood apparently wants as its top priority a pan-national Islamic caliphate ruled by an Imam. Many Muslims long for the rising up of a leader called the 12th Imam, often referred to as the Imam Mahdi. It will not end up with Spain if I understand certain aspects of Bible prophecy correctly, but the confederation of the final King of the South may go from around Western Sahara and/or Mauritania to Oman (with possible involvement and/or coordination with Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and/or Indonesia).
To bring enough Arab nations together, I have felt that some type of “strongman” needed to rise up. One who Arabs would tend to respect–who might use or not use the title Imam Mahdi–and because of biblical prophecies (e.g. Daniel 11:41′s reference to Edom), I do not believe it will be a Turk.
As far as the Obama Administration goes, it has been often alleged that a key partner of Hillary Clinton, including when she was Secretary of State in the Obama Administration, was a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood (Hillary Clinton, herself, has denied this). But irrespective of that, the Obama Administration has had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and has alluded it to influence aspects of US foreign policy.
Eventually, according to biblical prophecy, a confederation of nations in the Middle East and North Africa will form, and it will (for a time) include Turkey (cf. Daniel 11:27, 40-43), and for a time, cooperate with Europe (cf. Daniel 9:27, 11:27; Psalm 83:3-8).
The Bible shows that an alliance involving Arab, Turkish, and European nations will make a destructive deal:
3 They have taken crafty counsel against Your people, And consulted together against Your sheltered ones. 4 They have said, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, That the name of Israel may be remembered no more.” 5 For they have consulted together with one consent; They form a confederacy against You: 6 The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab and the Hagrites; 7 Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; 8 Assyria also has joined with them; They have helped the children of Lot. (Psalms 83:3-8)
Notice that the Bible indicates that the Turks (who are not Arabs, but seem to be related to Edom in scripture) will make a deal with the rising European power (Assyria above), along with the Arabs and Turkey (Psalm 83). The ‘deal’ of Psalm 83 will not end well for the USA nor its Anglo-Saxon descended allies (see also Anglo – America in Prophecy & the Lost Tribes of Israel).
Now since the Bible shows that Edom escapes what happens to theKing of the South in Daniel 11:40-43, despite a deal with the Arabs, Turkey is apparently not a going to be a strong supporter of the final King of the South for very long (which is why I do not believe a Turk, like its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan can possibly be the King of the South the Bible refers to). But apparently Turkey will be confederate with that power for a short while. But it looks prophesied to betray it (cf. Daniel 11:25-26, 41).
For now, we should expect to see Turkey will try to come up with arrangements with other Islamic nations as well as Europe.
As far as Joel Richardson goes, he has various misunderstandings of biblical prophecy that I have addressed in both the article Can the Final Antichrist be Islamic? as well as in the sermon Is the Final Antichrist Islamic or European? for those who want more information about what the Bible says lies ahead.
News presenter: John Hickey
